The chance that he had the only two cards that were better than mine—two aces—was very slim, but I would still look for any tell-tale signs, just a hint that he had something he liked or didn’t like.
He looked up and winked, then turned to the dealer. “Can I get a chip count?”
The dealer nodded. “Of course.”
Was Ben serious? The only reason he would ask for a chip count was if he was thinking of betting all his chips! I was the one who wanted to apply pressure on him!
Could he really be holding two aces in his hand or was he trying to scare me out?
I still couldn’t get a read on him.
Cool as a cucumber and sexy as hell.
The dealer counted the last of my chips and called out, “Lori Martin has five thousand, one hundred dollars.”
It wasn’t real money since we were playing for charity, but it was still a lot of chips.
I smiled, knowing it was impossible for Ben to have more chips than me since I had more than half of the total chips that had been distributed in the entire tournament.
The good news was it would be impossible for Ben to knock me out completely if he was thinking of going all in.
“Dr. Tough Love four thousand nine hundred,” the dealer added.
Ben sighed. “Lucky for you I couldn’t knock you out right now even if I wanted to.”
I shrugged and smiled. “Sorry, Charlie.”
“Unless . . .”
I shook my head. “No. There’s nounless.”
“Sure there is. Hang on.” He glanced at the dealer. “Would you happen to have a piece of paper and a pen I can use?”
The dealer nodded. “Of course.” The dealer grabbed his clipboard that tracked the tournament players and statistics, pulling out a blank piece of paper from the bottom and handing it to Ben, along with a pen.
“Are you penning a love letter to Lori?” someone called out.
There was laughter from the attendees surrounding the table.
“Maybe he’s going to write her an I-O-U!” someone else said.
Ben laughed and wrote a few words on the paper, and then handed the pen back to the dealer. He folded the piece of paper a couple of times and placed it on top of his stack of chips.
Next, he pulled out a small cream-colored envelope from his pocket, sticking that on top of the chips as well.
“What are you doing?” I was thoroughly confused.
Ben pushed the stack of chips, along with the piece of paper and envelope to the center of the table and stood. “I’m all in.”
The crowd erupted with cheers and whistles.
“Tough Love! Tough Love! Tough Love!”
I stared at the stack of chips and the paper and the card, pointing to them all. “What exactly is that?”
Ben leaned forward and pointed to the card. “That is the certificate for the whale and dolphin watching tour for two that I won in the silent auction. It’s worth one hundred and ninety-nine dollars. And since I still technically need a dollar to be even with you, chips-wise, I threw this in.” He grabbed the piece of paper and handed it to me.
I hesitated, but then grabbed the paper from him, unfolding it and jerking my head back after reading it. “One kiss at the end of the tournament.”
